Jury sides with UT Arlington professor who accused university of discrimination, retaliation

A federal jury has found in favor of a former engineering professor at The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) who claimed she faced discrimination and retaliatory firing after she complained about her treatment through the university's internal system.

The Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) shared in a news release on Wednesday that the jury sided with Haiying Huang on Friday, August 14, 2026. The association's release said Huang sued under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, alleging she faced retaliation based on her gender.

The AAUP said UTA failed to address "an ongoing retaliatory, discriminatory and hostile work environment" after she complained internally to the university's Equal Opportunity Services (EOS) office about what she alleged were repeated challenges to her authority by male colleagues, preferential treatment of those colleagues by departmental leadership, and her removal from committee leadership positions. Part of the alleged retaliation, the AAUP said, involved Huang being replaced as an associate chair by a male. Huang also alleged the university's EOS investigation was incomplete and biased.

The association went on to say that UTA's theory of the case centered on complaints and investigations that arose after Huang was terminated from her associate chair role, with UTA reportedly arguing it terminated her because her complaints and investigations brought discord to the department. However, the AAUP said Huang's attorneys drew attention to what it called a "circular and pretextual argument" brought by UT Arlington.

The AAUP said UTA's final witness called at trial was a Stanford-educated engineer. On cross-examination, the association said Huang's attorneys asked whether future events could influence past events, to which the engineer replied that they could not.

Per the association, the jury awarded Huang back pay, with further monetary award for front pay losses and attorneys' fees still pending before the court and expected to be awarded.

Huang was represented by attorneys Frank Hill and Ian Klein of Arlington-based Hill Gistrap, P.C.

CBS News Texas has reached out to UTA for comment.